Design and Analysis of Stabilizing Ambulance Stretcher

• Published in: Transactions of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (Online) 2022-12, Vol.7 (4), p.1205-1211
• Main Authors: Gawade, Akash Arjun, Baghdadwala, Aliasgar Akil, Antarkar, Sourabh Kakasaheb, Avhad, Harshad Kailas, Barbhai, Rohit Deepak, Chaudhari, Mangesh B.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Engineering; Original Article
• ISSN: 2662-5415; 2662-5423
• DOI: 10.1007/s41403-022-00356-w

Stretchers are required whenever a life-threatening accident occurs. A patient’s journey from the place of accident to the hospital is a very critical factor in saving the patient life. The patient’s journey in the ambulance comes with vibrations occurring now and then which may cause the patient unnecessary pain and even increase the severity of the complications. The proposed work focuses on reducing these vibrations by isolating them. For doing so, stretchers with dampers are designed. The suggestive designing is carried out in SolidWorks whereas analysis is done using MATLAB Simulink. For validating the MATLAB model, analytical calculations are carried out in Scilab. A triple mass spring damper system based on a quarter car model is developed in MATLAB Simulink. Two suggestive CAD models are proposed in this work to achieve the objective of isolating vibrations. The results of the analysis successfully showed that the vibrations caused due to sudden impacts transmitted the shock directly to the patient, causing additional distress. By adding an additional damping system between the chassis and stretcher, we can reduce the impact of shock directly.